why a array-pointer gives me different values - arrays

The code goes
#include<stdio.h>
int sumOfElements_new(int *A, int size){ // int *A or int A[] same thing
int i, sum = 0; // remember arrays decay as pointers in other functions besides main
for (i =0; i<size;i++){
sum += A[i]; // A[i] = *(A+i)-> value at that address
}
return sum;
}
int main(){
int A[] = {1,2,3,4,5};
int size = sizeof(A)/sizeof(A[0]);
int total = sumOfElements_new(&A[0], size);
printf("%d\n", &A[4]);
printf("Sum of elements = %d\n", total);
printf("Size of A = %d and size of A[0] = %d\n", sizeof(A), sizeof(A[0]));
return 0;
}
Now when I do something like this
int total = sumOfElements_new(&A[3], size);
the result is
Sum of elements = 30
Size of A = 20 and size of A[0] = 4
whenever I use &A[1] to any &A[6], it gives me different values.
Then why calling it in
int size = sizeof(A)/sizeof(A[0]);
gives me the correct answer of the Sum of the elements but, using &A[1-6] the answer goes up and its not even memory address??

Given how you define size, (e.g) int size = sizeof(A)/sizeof(A[0]); you can [only] do:
sumOfElements_new(&A[0],size)
If you use (e.g.) &A[3], you can't pass:
sumOfElements_new(&A[3],size)
because you're telling the function to sum past the end of the array. This is UB (undefined behavior). The program will fetch the data beyond the end, but that data is random (it is just whatever happens to be there).
You have to shorten the size/length you pass to the function. What you'd want is:
sumOfElements_new(&A[3],size - 3)
UPDATE:
May want to comment on printf("%d\n", &A[4]); as well..
This presents another issue. You [probably] want to print the value of the element of the A that has index 4.
The indexing is correct (i.e. it does not go beyond the end of the array), but you're passing the address of that element and not its value.
With your original code, if you compiled with warnings enabled (e.g. using the -Wall option--which you should always do, IMO), the compiler would flag this statement.
That's because you're passing an address [which on modern x86 cpus is probably 64 bits]. That's an unsigned quantity and you're trying to print it in decimal using only 32 bits [because an int is usually only 32 bits].
So, to print the value, you'd probably want:
printf("%d\n", A[4]);
If you truly wanted to print the address of that element [a more advanced usage], you could do:
printf("%p\n", &A[4]);

Related

why do I have a runtime #2 failure in C when I have enough space and there isn't many data in the array

I'm writing this code in C for some offline games but when I run this code, it says "runtime failure #2" and "stack around the variable has corrupted". I searched the internet and saw some answers but I think there's nothing wrong with this.
#include <stdio.h>
int main(void) {
int a[16];
int player = 32;
for (int i = 0; i < sizeof(a); i++) {
if (player+1 == i) {
a[i] = 254;
}
else {
a[i] = 32;
}
}
printf("%d", a[15]);
return 0;
}
Your loop runs from 0 to sizeof(a), and sizeof(a) is the size in bytes of your array.
Each int is (typically) 4-bytes, and the total size of the array is 64-bytes. So variable i goes from 0 to 63.
But the valid indices of the array are only 0-15, because the array was declared [16].
The standard way to iterate over an array like this is:
#define count_of_array(x) (sizeof(x) / sizeof(*x))
for (int i = 0; i < count_of_array(a); i++) { ... }
The count_of_array macro calculates the number of elements in the array by taking the total size of the array, and dividing by the size of one element.
In your example, it would be (64 / 4) == 16.
sizeof(a) is not the size of a, but rather how many bytes a consumes.
a has 16 ints. The size of int depends on the implementation. A lot of C implementations make int has 4 bytes, but some implementations make int has 2 bytes. So sizeof(a) == 64 or sizeof(a) == 32. Either way, that's not what you want.
You define int a[16];, so the size of a is 16.
So, change your for loop into:
for (int i = 0; i < 16; i++)
You're indexing too far off the size of the array, trying to touch parts of memory that doesn't belong to your program. sizeof(a) returns 64 (depending on C implementation, actually), which is the total amount of bytes your int array is taking up.
There are good reasons for trying not to statically declare the number of iterations in a loop when iterating over an array.
For example, you might realloc memory (if you've declared the array using malloc) in order to grow or shrink the array, thus making it harder to keep track of the size of the array at any given point. Or maybe the size of the array depends on user input. Or something else altogether.
There's no good reason to avoid saying for (int i = 0; i < 16; i++) in this particular case, though. What I would do is declare const int foo = 16; and then use foo instead of any number, both in the array declaration and the for loop, so that if you ever need to change it, you only need to change it in one place. Else, if you really want to use sizeof() (maybe because one of the reasons above) you should divide the return value of sizeof(array) by the return value of sizeof(type of array). For example:
#include <stdio.h>
const int ARRAY_SIZE = 30;
int main(void)
{
int a[ARRAY_SIZE];
for(int i = 0; i < sizeof(a) / sizeof(int); i++)
a[i] = 100;
// I'd use for(int i = 0; i < ARRAY_SIZE; i++) though
}

Trying to make a function which squares all values in an array. Getting strange number on the last value

int squaring_function (int *array, int i);
int main()
{
int array[5];
int i;
for(i=0; (i <= 5) ; i++)
{
array[i] = i;
printf("\nArray value %d is %d",i,array[i]);
}
for(i=0; (i <= 5) ; i++)
{
array[i] = (squaring_function(array, i));
printf("\nSquared array value %d is %d",i,array[i]);
}
return 0;
}
int squaring_function (int *array, int i)
{
return pow((array[i]),2);
}
I'm trying to use this squaring_function to square each value in turn in my array (containing integers 0 to 5). It seems to work however the last value (which should be 5)^2 is not coming up as 25. cmd window
I have tried reducing the array size to 5 (so the last value is 4) however this prints an incorrect number also.
I'm quite new to C and don't understand why this last value is failing.
I'm aware I could do this without a separate function however I'd quite like to learn why this isn't working.
Any help would be much appreciated.
Thanks,
Dan.
There are 2 bugs in your code. First is that you're accessing array out of bounds. The memory rule is that with n elements the indices must be smaller than n, hence < 5, not <= 5. And if you want to count up to 5, then you must declare
int array[6];
The other problem is that your code calculates pow(5, 2) as 24.99999999 which gets truncated to 24. The number 24 went to the memory location immediately after array overwriting i; which then lead to array[i] evaluating to array[24] which happened to be all zeroes.
Use array[i] * array[i] instead of pow to ensure that the calculation is done with integers.
The code
int array[5];
for(int i=0; (i <= 5) ; i++)
exceeds array bounds and introduces undefined behaviour. Note that 0..5 are actually 6 values, not 5. If you though see some "meaningful" output, well - good or bad luck - it's just the result of undefined behaviour, which can be everything (including sometimes meaningful values).
Your array isn't big enough to hold all the values.
An array of size 5 has indexes from 0 - 4. So array[5] is off the end of the array. Reading or writing past the end of an array invokes undefined behavior.
Increase the size of the array to 6 to fit the values you want.
int array[6];
The other answers show the flaws in the posted code.
If your goal is to square each element of an array, you can either write a function which square a value
void square(int *x)
{
*x *= *x;
}
and apply it to every element of an array or write a function which takes an entire array as an input and perform that transformation:
void square_array(int size, int arr[size])
{
for (int i = 0; i < size; ++i)
{
arr[i] *= arr[i];
}
}
// ... where given an array like
int nums[5] = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5};
// you can call it like this
square_array(5, nums); // -> {1, 4, 9, 16, 25}

How to properly sum the elements of an array w/out getting large random outputs

I wrote two functions and call the functions in main.
Function 1 – I wrote a function that returns void and takes an int * (pointer to integer array) or int[], and int (for the size). The function needs to initialize all the elements of the array to non-zero values.
Function 2 – I wrote another function that returns int and takes an const int * (pointer to integer array) or int[], and int (for the size). The function should sum all the elements of the array and return the sum.
In main I defined an integer array of size 5. Called function 1 in main to initialize the values of the array. Called function 2 in main to get the sum and print the value of the sum to the console.
My problem is the program runs but the print out for sum we are getting is a large (in the millions), random, number and is not the expected answer of 15. Anyone who can help us get the correct answer would be greatly appreciated
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <windows.h>
#pragma warning(disable: 4996)
void func1(int* ptr, int size);
int func2(const int* ptr, int size);
int main()
{
int grid[5];
func1(grid, 5);
func2(grid, 5);
}
void func1(int* ptr, int size)
{
*ptr = 1, 2, 3, 4, 5;
}
int func2(const int* ptr, int size)
{
int sum;
sum = ptr[0] + ptr[1] + ptr[2] + ptr[3] + ptr[4]; // *(ptr + 0); putting an asterisk makes it so that it changes the entire "ptr" value and the "[0]" value
printf("\n\nThe sum of the integers in the array is %d.\n\n", &sum);
}
*ptr = 1, 2, 3, 4, 5;
does not do what you think it does. It actually evaluates all the integer constants but sets ptr[0] to be 1 (see comma operator for more detail), leaving all the others at some arbitrary value.
Note that it is not evaluating *ptr = (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) (which would set *ptr to 5) but is actually evaluating (*ptr = 1), 2, 3, 4, 5 - this works because something like 42 is actually a valid C statement, albeit not very useful.
If you're trying to set the array to increasing values, just use something like:
for (int i = 0; i < size; i++)
ptr[i] = i + 1;
You probably also want to do that when summing the values since it should depend on the passed-in size rather than just summing five values:
int sum = 0;
for (int i = 0; i < size; i++)
sum += ptr[i];
Additionally, the value you are printing out is not the sum, it's the address of the variable containing the sum (a decent compiler will warn you about this). You should be using sum in your printf rather than &sum.
And, as a final note, the signature for func2 indicates that you should actually be returning the sum rather than just printing it. So I would suggest removing the printf from that function and simply doing:
return sum;
Then you can put the printf into the caller (main) as follows:
int main(void)
{
int grid[5];
func1(grid, sizeof(grid) / sizeof(*grid));
int sum = func2(grid, sizeof(grid) / sizeof(*grid));
printf("The sum of the integers in the array is %d.\n\n", sum);
return 0;
}
Note the use of sizeof(grid) / sizeof(*grid), which is basically the number of array elements in grid - this will allow you to resize grid by simply changing it in one place to something like int grid[42] and still have all the code work with the updated size.
Not actually necessary for your code but it's best to get into good programming habits early (more descriptive names for your functions may also be a good idea).
Line *ptr = 1, 2, 3, 4, 5; assigns ptr[0] value and leaves other spots unitilized so when you sum it, it will be random memory.
You should use for like this to initialize
for(int i=0;i<size;i++)
{
ptr[i] = i+1;
}
and similiar aproach to sum it.

Using memset for integer array in C

char str[] = "beautiful earth";
memset(str, '*', 6);
printf("%s", str);
Output:
******ful earth
Like the above use of memset, can we initialize only a few integer array index values to 1 as given below?
int arr[15];
memset(arr, 1, 6);
No, you cannot use memset() like this. The manpage says (emphasis mine):
The memset() function fills the first n bytes of the memory area pointed to by s with the constant byte c.
Since an int is usually 4 bytes, this won't cut it.
If you (incorrectly!!) try to do this:
int arr[15];
memset(arr, 1, 6*sizeof(int)); //wrong!
then the first 6 ints in the array will actually be set to 0x01010101 = 16843009.
The only time it's ever really acceptable to write over a "blob" of data with non-byte datatype(s), is memset(thing, 0, sizeof(thing)); to "zero-out" the whole struture/array. This works because NULL, 0x00000000, 0.0, are all completely zeros.
The solution is to use a for loop and set it yourself:
int arr[15];
int i;
for (i=0; i<6; ++i) // Set the first 6 elements in the array
arr[i] = 1; // to the value 1.
Short answer, NO.
Long answer, memset sets bytes and works for characters because they are single bytes, but integers are not.
On Linux, OSX and other UNIX like operating systems where wchar_t is 32 bits and you can use wmemset() instead of memset().
#include<wchar.h>
...
int arr[15];
wmemset( arr, 1, 6 );
Note that wchar_t on MS-Windows is 16 bits so this trick may not work.
The third argument of memset is byte size. So you should set total byte size of arr[15]
memset(arr, 1, sizeof(arr));
However probably, you should want to set value 1 to whole elements in arr. Then you've better to set in the loop.
for (i = 0; i < sizeof(arr)/sizeof(arr[0]); i++) {
arr[i] = 1;
}
Because memset() set 1 in each bytes. So it's not your expected.
Since nobody mentioned it...
Although you cannot initialize the integers with value 1 using memset, you can initialize them with value -1 and simply change your logic to work with negative values instead.
For example, to initialize the first 6 numbers of your array with -1, you would do
memset(arr,-1,6*(sizeof int));
Furthermore, if you only need to do this initialization once, you can actually declare the array to start with values 1 from compile time.
int arr[15] = {1,1,1,1,1,1};
Actually it is possible with memset_pattern4 which sets 4 bytes at a time.
memset_pattern4(your_array, your_number, sizeof(your_array));
No, you can't [portably] use memset for that purpose, unless the desired target value is 0. memset treats the target memory region as an array of bytes, not an array of ints.
A fairly popular hack for filling a memory region with a repetitive pattern is actually based on memcpy. It critically relies on the expectation that memcpy copies data in forward direction
int arr[15];
arr[0] = 1;
memcpy(&arr[1], &arr[0], sizeof arr - sizeof *arr);
This is, of course, a pretty ugly hack, since the behavior of standard memcpy is undefined when the source and destination memory regions overlap. You can write your own version of memcpy though, making sure it copies data in forward direction, and use in the above fashion. But it is not really worth it. Just use a simple cycle to set the elements of your array to the desired value.
Memset sets values for data types having 1 byte but integers have 4 bytes or more , so it won't work and you'll get garbage values.
It's mostly used when you are working with char and string types.
Ideally you can not use memset to set your arrary to all 1.Because memset works on byte and set every byte to 1.
memset(hash, 1, cnt);
So once read, the value it will show 16843009 = 0x01010101 = 1000000010000000100000001
Not 0x00000001
But if your requiremnt is only for bool or binary value then we can set using C99 standard for C library
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <stdbool.h> //Use C99 standard for C language which supports bool variables
int main()
{
int i, cnt = 5;
bool *hash = NULL;
hash = malloc(cnt);
memset(hash, 1, cnt);
printf("Hello, World!\n");
for(i=0; i<cnt; i++)
printf("%d ", hash[i]);
return 0;
}
Output:
Hello, World!
1 1 1 1 1
The following program shows that we can initialize the array using memset() with -1 and 0 only
#include<stdio.h>
#include<string.h>
void printArray(int arr[], int len)
{
int i=0;
for(i=0; i<len; i++)
{
printf("%d ", arr[i]);
}
puts("");
}
int main()
{
int arrLen = 15;
int totalNoOfElementsToBeInitialized = 6;
int arr[arrLen];
printArray(arr, arrLen);
memset(arr, -1, totalNoOfElementsToBeInitialized*sizeof(arr[0]));
printArray(arr, arrLen);
memset(arr, 0, totalNoOfElementsToBeInitialized*sizeof(arr[0]));
printArray(arr, arrLen);
memset(arr, 1, totalNoOfElementsToBeInitialized*sizeof(arr[0]));
printArray(arr, arrLen);
memset(arr, 2, totalNoOfElementsToBeInitialized*sizeof(arr[0]));
printArray(arr, arrLen);
memset(arr, -2, totalNoOfElementsToBeInitialized*sizeof(arr[0]));
printArray(arr, arrLen);
return 0;
}

Does making the iterator a pointer speed up a C loop?

I ran the following:
#include <stdio.h>
typedef unsigned short boolean;
#define false 0
#define true (!false)
int main()
{
int STATUS = 0;
int i = 0;
boolean ret = true;
for(i = 0; i < 99999; i++)
{
ret = ret && printf("Hello, World.");
}
if(!ret)
{
STATUS = -1;
}
return STATUS;
}
It completes in just under a second. Typically 0.9 - 0.92.
Then I changed int i = 0; to int *i = 0; and now I am getting execution times under 0.2 seconds. Why the speed change?
Your runtime is dominated by the time required to print to the console. i++ on an int* will increment the pointer by the size of a pointer. That will be either 4 or 8 depending on your computer and compiler settings. Based on the numbers you report, presumably it would be 4. So printf is executed only a quarter as many times.
Typically, printing to a console will be several orders of magnitude larger than any gain with micro optimization you could do to such a loop.
Are you really sure your second version prints hello world 99999 times as well ?
When you're doing for(int *i = 0; i++ ; i < 99999 ) , you're cheking if the pointer value(an address) is less than 99999, which doesn't normally make a lot of sense. Incrementing a pointer means you step it up to point at the next element, and since you have an int*, you'll increment the pointer by sizeof(int) bytes.
You're just iterating 99999/sizeof(int) times.
Your comment on nos's answer confirmed my suspicion: it's pointer arithmetic. When you increment an int pointer using ++, it doesn't just add one to the number, but it actually jumps up by the size of an integer, which is usually 4 (bytes). So i++ is actually adding 4 to the numeric value of i.
Similarly, if you use += on a pointer, like i += 5, it won't just add 5 (or whatever) to the numeric value of i, it'll advance i by the size of that many integers, so 5*4 = 20 bytes in that case.
The reasoning behind this is that if you have a chunk of memory that you're treating as an array,
int array[100]; // for example
you can iterate over the elements in the array by incrementing a pointer.
int* i = array;
int* end = array + 100;
for (i = array; i < end; i++) { /* do whatever */ }
and you won't have to rewrite the loop if you use a data type of a different size.
The reason is because the increment operates differently on pointers.
On ints, i++ increments i by 1.
For pointers, i++ increments by the size of the pointed-to object, which will be 4 or 8 depending on your architecture.
So your loop runs for only 1/4 or 1/8 of the iteration count when i is a pointer vs when i is an int.
The correct way to do this test with a pointer would be something like:
int i;
int *i_ptr = &i;
for (*i_ptr = 0; *i_ptr < 99999; *i_ptr++) {
...

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